Should abortion remain legal?

Voices on both sides of the abortion battle offer their thoughts four decades after the landmark court decision. The anniversary is being marked in Washington today with an annual March for Life and other events.

It was 40 years ago this month that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the historic Roe v. Wade decision. This landmark ruling affirmed that the constitutionally protected right to privacy includes every woman's ability to make her own personal medical decisions, without the interference of politicians. Four decades later, a majority of Americans still agrees with the high court: that personal health care decisions should be left up to a woman.

In poll after poll, a majority of Americans supports access to safe and legal abortion in some or most cases. A Quinnipiac poll taken in February 2012 found that nearly two-thirds of American voters support Roe v. Wade, with a mere 31 percent disagreeing with the historic court decision. In addition, a post-election poll from the Pew Research Center found that 64 percent of voters younger than 30 think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

But interestingly, the way people identify with the issue has shifted over the years. No longer do labels like "pro-choice" and "pro-life" reflect the way people think about abortion. The fact is, generations of Americans — across party lines — understand that it's just not that simple. Abortion is deeply personal, often complex, and not something that can be put squarely in a "pro" or "anti" box. Indeed, the number of Americans who support access to safe and legal abortion is consistently higher than those who identify as "pro-choice." And many Americans self-identify as both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" — or neither.

What unites people — and what doesn't need a label — is the shared belief that politicians should not interfere in a woman's personal decision about her pregnancy. And an underlying principle to such a complex decision is that none of us can understand a woman's specific situation. We don't walk in her shoes.

Undoubtedly, voters made it clear this year that they are opposed to policies that demean and dismiss women. In November's election, voters rejected some of the nation's most vocal and extreme opponents of safe and legal abortion. Yet, despite the outcome of the election, we continue to fight politicians who are seemingly obsessed with banning or chipping away at abortion access. In state after state, legislators have put forward bills that seek to limit a woman's ability to make her own decisions about her pregnancy.

Simply put, these attacks on women's health fly in the face of public opinion and are politically unpopular and extremely dangerous to women and their families. To protect their health and the health of their families, women must have access to safe, legal abortion services without interference from politicians, as protected by the highest court.

At Planned Parenthood of Northeast, Mid-Penn & Bucks County, we work every day to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and keep women healthy. We understand that a woman should have accurate information about all her options regarding her pregnancy, and that this information should support a woman and help her make a decision for herself.

Ultimately, decisions about whether to choose adoption, end a pregnancy, or raise a child must be left to a woman, her family, and her faith, with the counsel of her doctor or health care provider.

We support women in whatever decision they make — this is our promise. We've protected access to abortion for women for 40 years, and we will continue to protect it for the next 40.

In the year I was born, almost one-third of all pregnancies ended in abortion. In the past 40 years, abortion has claimed more than 55 million lives. In Pennsylvania alone, an unborn child dies every 15 minutes in an abortion. It is precisely facts like these that convince me — and so many in my generation — that abortion is unnecessary and wrong.

The facts show all too plainly how any of my siblings, friends or classmates could have been killed before they had a chance to be born. And they make me wonder how many of my peers I will never know. In January 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade, young women did not have access to the facts about abortion that we have today. Nor did they have the perspective of looking back over 40 years of data showing the consequences of abortion on demand. My generation does.